Category Archives: Tomatoes

As I promised a week or so ago, I have moved on to the next part of the “Straw Bale Experiment” and planted bell peppers in the second one.

I didn’t go through the whole “Step-By-Step” that I did with the tomatoes, but it is the same process.

Open a hole in the straw.

Fill it with a good quality potting soil.

Plant the pepper. (When I was planting tomatoes I told you to plant them deep so more roots would develop. Plant peppers at the same depth that they were in the pots.)

An interesting thing is happening that I didn’t anticipate. Apparently there were wheat seeds in the straw that are now sprouting. You can see them coming up throughout the straw. (Those green things.) One of the advantages of planting in straw was that you wouldn’t need to weed.) I’ll let the sprouts get a bit bigger before I pull them out.

Incidentally, here is a picture of the whole bed that the straw is in.

As you can see some of the plants are much farther ahead then the ones in the straw bales. That is because I’ve been known to procrastinate when I start a new project. Don’t worry, in a couple of more weeks you won’t be able to tell the difference between the ones in the garden and the ones in the straw.

Remember to take your Juice Plus+!!! If you need to order you can go to my website Everyday Organics . Remember, you can get “Free Juice Plus+ Capsules or Chewables for your child or grand-child as long as you are taking Juice Plus+. That’s a pretty good deal.

I planted the first bale of straw this weekend. The bale is still a bit warm, but I don’t think so warm as to affect the tomatoes. Here is the process:

My original thoughts on opening the holes was to use a trowel. That didn’t work so well. (The straw was tightly packed) So the tool of choice turned out to be a pair of pliers, and some muscle.

Then I added a couple of handfuls of a good potting soil into the bottom of each hole for the tomato plant to grow into.

I planted the tomatoes, adding more potting soil around each of them. (Remember to loosen the roots, and plant them deep. New roots will form along the stem of the tomato plant.)

I staked the tomatoes using cages, and – – – – – – –

Now I’ll just sit back and watch them grow!!!

I’ve still got another bale of straw to plant. I think I’ll try some peppers in the next one. I’ll keep you posted on the process.

Remember to take your Juice Plus+!!! If you need to order you can go to my website Everyday Organics . Remember, you can get “Free Juice Plus+ Capsules or Chewables for your child or grand-child as long as you are taking Juice Plus+. That’s a pretty good deal.

It’s been several months since we talked, and I want to apologize to all of you. However, I’m back and I want to let you know what I’ve been doing.

Since we last spoke my oldest granddaughter graduated from high school and I now have a new grandson (number 12). I’ve been studying for a Quality Engineering Certification, and I’ve been helping my husband, Sweet-Ole-Bob, get ready for a couple of weeks hiking on the Appalachian Trail. He has been there and back by now, but you might want to check out the Newsletter that he published about his hike. Check out the April Posts on Walker’s Walks . You might want to Subscribe to his Newsletter while you’re there. He’s wandering around the Mohican State Forest in Ohio now.

There are a whole bunch of things that I’ll tell you about later, but for now I want you to be aware of my new gardening project/experiment. I have been having issues with “Tomato Blight” which is soil borne and causes the tomato leaves to die back from the ground up. This opens the ripening tomatoes to sun scald.

So I bought a couple of bales of straw, conditioned them by soaking them with water, (This will begin the composting process) and after a few days when the composting heat subsides, will plant the tomatoes directly into the straw. The idea is to keep the roots out of the soil and the plants high enough so that the rain doesn’t splash the soil up onto the plants.

It’s July 30th in Ohio, and here is my tomato patch as it is today. I’ve been picking these since mid-July and many a “Tomato-Lettuce and (In my case) Turkey” sandwiches have been consumed in the household.

Ta-May-Tow (Sweet Million) Ta-Mah-Tow (BigBeef)

There are also three or four “Brandy Wines” in the patch, but those are the “Big Ones” and I didn’t want you to think that I am bragging.

Remember to take your Juice Plus+!!! If you need to order you can go to my website Everyday Organics . Remember, you can get “Free Juice Plus+ Capsules or Chewables for your child or grand-child as long as you are taking Juice Plus+. That’s a pretty good deal.

The last few months have been extremely busy, but not very productive. Hopefully I believe that I am now moving into a time of “Not so Busy–More Productive”. It’s mid-June and I thought that I would show you where my homestead is at the moment.

This is the path leading to my back porch. The “Stella-D’Oro” day-lilies are just beginning to bloom, and the goldfish definitely survived the winter. They are eating me out of house and home.

There are somewhere between 20 and 25 of them in the pond. I suspect that the waterlilies will be blooming within a week or two.

The roses are doing well along the path to the front of the house.

and best of all the tomatoes are beginning to set fruit. I tried a couple of “Brandywine” heritage tomatoes to see how they will do and some “Sweet Million” cherry tomatoes right along the path so that the Grand-kids can sample them on the way into the house.

If you have not ordered your Juice Plus+ capsules yet, there is no time like the present. The Juice Plus+ Nutrition Bars are a great snack to carry with you during the day. (You can purchase them both on-line. Just click the “Links” on the right) There will be a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables at this time of year, but even with those you will still want to enhance your diet with the capsules that will supplement your nutrition using all natural vitamins and keep your body’s health balanced.